Son of a gun

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Son of a gun is a slang term present in American and British English.

Contents

[edit] Origins

[edit] British English

In British naval slang this term refers to children of questionable parentage conceived on Gun Deck. Hence 'son of a gun'. However, children born on board British Naval Vessels to enlisted men were referred to as 'true son of a gun'.[1]

Admiral William Henry Smyth wrote in his 1867 book, the Sailor's Word-book:[2]

Son of a gun, an epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their husbands to sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage.

When a Royal Navy vessel entered a port it was common for local prostitutes to visit the ship and elicit custom from the sailors. The sailors and prostitutes then had sexual relations, usually on one of the gun decks beside the many guns carried, one of the few places Able and Ordinary Seaman could obtain some sort of privacy. Should the prostitute subsequently fall pregnant by the sailor, she would then attempt to obtain compensation from the father or the navy for the upkeep of the child. This was usually not forthcoming and the father's name would be withheld. When it was fairly certain that the child had been conceived upon board one of His Majesty's vessels, the infant would be entered into the ship's records as 'child born to gun number X', the X denoting the gun position the sailor responsible for the errant behaviour was allocated-to, his name being omitted to maintain probity. These children born in this manner had no father's name on any official records and the male ones were referred to by knowing sailors as being 'sons of guns', a term denoting illegitimacy and contempt.

[edit] American English

In American folk idiom (American) this term has similar meaning to the British one, but was derived from military bureaucratic treatment of young enlisted men of uncertain familial background. If a recruit was unable to state his father's name, officers recorded "A. Gun".[citation needed]

[edit] Other

One unconfirmed story says the meaning of son of a gun comes from American Civil War times, when a bullet passed through a soldier's scrotum, passing through him into a woman nearby, and lodged into the woman's ovaries, depositing the sperm, thus impregnating her and bestowing on her unborn child the phrase of "son of a gun". The story's origin is a facetious article in an 1874 medical journal[3]; it was also featured and found implausible on a 2005 episode of MythBusters.

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Webster's Dictionary both define 'son of a gun' term in American English as a euphemism for Son of a bitch. [4] [5]

Encarta Dictionary defines the term in a different way as someone "affectionately or kindly regarded". [6]

[edit] The Term in Popular Culture

[edit] Music

[edit] Film

[edit] Video games

  • The Son of a gun is a character trait in a roguelike DoomRL.
  • Sun of a Gun is a sub-boss in the video game Chrono Cross that resembles a mechanical sun and uses its mechanical "rays" to fire bullets and other projectiles.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ On-line discussion on the topic. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
  2. ^ Admiral W.H. Smyth (2005). The Sailor's Word-Book: The Classic Dictionary of Nautical Terms. London: Conway Maritime. ISBN 0-85177-972-7. Retrieved on June 2, 2006. 
  3. ^ Urban Legends Reference Pages entry. Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
  4. ^ Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary entry. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
  5. ^ Webster's Dictionary entry. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
  6. ^ Encarta Dictionary entry. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
  7. ^ IMDB Entry on the 1919 movie. Retrieved on June 2, 2006.
  8. ^ IMDB Entry on the 1926 movie. Retrieved on June 11, 2006.
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